Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A typical cellular wireless network operated by a wireless service provider, such as a radio access network (RAN), includes a number of base stations that radiate to define wireless coverage areas, such as cells and cell sectors, in which user equipment devices (UEs) such as cell phones, tablet computers, tracking devices, embedded wireless modules, and other wirelessly equipped communication devices, can operate. In turn, each base station may be coupled with network infrastructure that provides connectivity with one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet for instance. With this arrangement, a UE within coverage of the network may engage in air interface communication with a base station and may thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other UEs served by the base station.
An important feature of contemporary cellular wireless networks is an ability to locate the geographical position of a UE. Such a feature may be used for a variety of location-based services. As an example, location information of the UE may be used to assist emergency services, such as Enhanced 9-1-1 services, in locating a UE. For instance, when a 9-1-1 call is placed, the 9-1-1 call may be routed by the PSTN to be answered at one of many public safety answering points (PSAPs), each PSAP serving a particular area, such as a city, county, or metropolitan area.
In practice, when a location-based service provider/application (e.g., a cellular wireless carrier or third party) or other entity wants to determine the location of a UE, the location-based service provider may send a location request message to the wireless carrier that serves the UE (or, if the location-based service provider is itself the carrier, then the location-based service provider may send the request within the carrier's network to a designated entity or logic for handling). In response, the carrier may engage in a process to determine where the UE is currently located, generate a response to the location request, and send the response to the location-based service provider.
In some implementations, a wireless carrier will operate a mobile location system (MLS) (or, “mobile location server”) that is arranged to determine and report UE locations to requesting entities, such as a PSAP. The MLS may include a mobile positioning center (MPC) and a position determining entity (PDE), which may be integrated together. The MLS may function to determine the location of a given UE based on various factors such as (i) the identity and location of the cell/sector in which the UE is currently operating, (ii) satellite-based positioning information provided by the UE, (iii) round trip signal delay measurements, and/or (iv) signal strength measurements. Further, the carrier may operate a front end server for receiving location requests from location-based service providers and forwarding those requests to the MLS.
When the MLS receives a request for the location of a particular UE, the MLS (e.g., MPC/PDE) may thus determine the location of the UE. The MLS may then return the determined location of the UE to the requesting entity, and the requesting entity may then report or make use of the determined location, such as to provide a location-based service (e.g., delivering emergency aid to the UE's location, sending a law enforcement unit to the UE's location, or delivering to the UE content established or selected based on the UE's location).
In some scenarios, however, the MLS or other location-determining entity may not be able to determine a precise location of a UE for a requesting entity, and may instead determine an estimated location of the UE using one or more low-accuracy location determination processes. For instance, the MLS may determine the location of the UE to be a centroid of a cell sector in which the UE is operating. As another example, the MLS may determine the location of the UE to merely be a location of a base station that is serving the UE.
However, a problem may arise in these scenarios. For example, the determined location of the UE may coincide with an existing location of another entity, such as a home residence, school institution, or other private address where the UE is not actually located. As a result, the requesting entity may send law enforcement or other unwanted services/content to the existing location of the other entity, believing the UE to be located there.